So it's been a little more than a week since my last blog and I have much to write about!
As you all know from the last blog, we were fearing the worst with Dominic (fecal impaction) and weren't sure of our next move. Fortunately, with all the wonderful people around us, we were able to remain calm and assess the situation the best way we knew how, however, after numerous attempts with at-home remedies, we saw nothing but failure after failure and pretty much knew that this was out of our hands. We quickly contacted a nurse through our local hospital who put us in touch with a pediatrician near where we live. We scheduled an appointment a.s.a.p.
Of course, as soon as we entered into the doctor's office for his "exam", Dominic grew very apprehensive as he quickly understood our reasoning for being there. (Given everything he had already been through for the last week, I can't say I hardly blamed him!) The pediatrician had an extremely difficult time fully assessing him and his abdomen, and after consulting with a GI specialist (whom she laughed at when he told her to try to perform a rectal exam), we were given 3 different options: 1) Do an enema at the office (which the pediatrician wasn't recommending given Dominic's disposition) 2) Admit him into the ER and have a tube inserted down his throat to administer oral enemas and just wait it out...OR 3) Take Dominic home and give therapeutic doses of Miralax or Mag. Citrate and try using mineral oil enemas vs. saline enemas. We clearly chose option #3 and happily brought our son back home with us just two days prior to Christmas. We were anxious to get started on these new therapeutic doses as there is no better feeling than knowing there is still hope in our efforts to help him!!
HOWEVER, as great as it was to bring Dominic back home with us and do these therapies in the comfort of our own home, we were forewarned of the side effects for him: bloating, cramping...and just downright uncomfortable. And after just the first day of therapeutic doses of Miralax, Dominic was miserable. It was completely heart breaking to see him in so much pain and to see him so bloated from everything he had been eating for the past 24 days and none of it having come out. He even began to get angry, throwing toys across the room because the pain would be too much for him to handle. It was devastating...that was Christmas Eve day.
On Christmas Day, we had lots of family come into town and stay with us--including Jason (my sister's husband). Though they were all aware of Dominic's situation, I don't think any of them realized just how bad it was--and, of course, it was the absolute worst on this day. Dominic had very much looked forward to seeing all his cousins and opening presents with them, but when they all arrived, Dominic couldn't even get off the couch with the exception of the occassional running to his "hiding spot" to try to prevent any kind of BM from happening. Once it passed, he would (with much effort) drag himself back to the couch and lay down, writhing and squirming in pain, often crying out. It was at this point that I started explaining to everyone all that we had done or had been doing to try to help Dominic poop, but with no success. It was obvious that Josh and I could not do it alone; we needed extra hands and by 9:00 pm Christmas evening, we took full advantage of that opportunity.
I told my husband exactly where to sit and how to hold Dominic; I also told Uncle Jason what I needed him to do and how to hold Dominic. With one of them on each side holding Dominic in just the right position, utilizing massive amounts of strength on their parts and my mom being in charge of lubrication, I went to work as the "digger". Now, this was not my plan as I had hoped I would not have to do that, but as it turns out, it is what I had to do and without me doing it, I'm not so sure I would be sitting here tonight writing this. Was it easy? No. Did we like doing it? No. Did Dominic cooperate? Absolutely not. BUT, with a little bit of "digging", you can find anything and after I dug out Dominic a little bit, he was able to finally push his blockage out along with about 15" worth of backed up stool. We could instantly see the relief on his face as he looked up at us and said "my belly doesn't hurt anymore!" We all cheered, as this was the best Christmas present we could have received...
After that night and into the next day, Dominic had approximately 8-12 bowel movements.
We are looking forward to getting him on a healthy diet now (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) to prevent this from happening ever again. We honestly believe that by changing his eating habits it will eventually heal his gut and thus eliminate any constipation from happening in the future. We have officially started the diet as of this morning, however, Dominic is battling the flu right now and it is just rough-going for him at this point...
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
December 21, 2008
Well, it's been 20 days since Dominic's last bowel movement. How we ever got to this point with him, I'm not sure. It has always been typical for Dominic to go without a bowel movement for 5-7 days even as an infant, but as he's gotten older, the span has only grown wider and the worry more worrisome.
Dominic has high functioning autism. At the age of 4, Dominic was diagnosed with autism by the autism strategist from our local school.
Even as a most-loving and independent child with advanced coordination skills for his age, Dominic showed signs of delayed speech and poor communication skills with few words used on his own and frequent echolalia at the age of 2. We first introduced AEA because of his speech delay, however, after just a few months of speech therapy and minor progress, we decided to opt out of the AEA program and speech while our family underwent some major changes--moving to a new city and to a new house!
After moving to our new home, we decided to contact our local AEA once again to get Dominic's speech therapy started back up. It was then that we realized he needed more than what the speech therapist could give him and that is when we decided to integrate him into a pre-kindergarten classroom, mainly for speech modeling from his peers. Because we had expressed concern, an autism screening was done and that is when we were informed that Dominic had high-functioning autism.
Though we were prepared for the outcome, we knew that we had to do everything we could do to help our son thrive. We became heavily involved in biomedical therapies and researching every corner possible on the internet, getting our hands on any kind of reading material we could. You have to weed out the bad from the good, and that can be very difficult when you're a hopeful parent looking for the "magic cure".
Fortunately, we are blessed with a wonderful family in having their understanding and support as we try to "fight through the fog". As some of you may already know through the website www.hyperbaricsupport.com, Dr. Jason Rose, a chiropractor in Cedar Falls, IA, is Dominic's uncle and has dedicated much of his time to finding biomedical interventions to help Dominic and others like him who are affected by autism. Jason is also working towards certification as a DAN! doctor and has put us in contact with other great resources--a prayer answered, no doubt!
With such great success in such a small amount of time, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has proven to be a huge asset with our son. It is something we will continue to do with him whenever given the opportunity. Currently, Dominic also takes fish oil and a mutlivitamin/mineral supplement every day. This has also proven beneficial in his concentration and speech as his diet is extremely limited being the finicky eater that he is, eating only a handful of different foods--mostly unhealthy!
Because of his self-limited diet, this has led to extreme bowel habits, or lack thereof. Dominic was fully potty trained at the age of 2, but after moving to our new home, he regressed to the point where we finally had to give in to letting him poop in diapers versus his underwear. This seemed to work for him up until recently, when we realized he would do anything possible, contorting his body into any position possible, so that he would not poop. We've gone two weeks before without seeing any major bowel movement, but this time, something was different; he wouldn't even allow us to put a diaper on him because he absolutely refused to "go". Dominic recently missed an entire week of school because he refused to get off the couch due to the fact that he had the urge to go everytime he would stand up. Things were spiraling out of control.
After consulting with another parent of an autistic child who had been through a very similar situation, we opted to do enemas on Dominic. Unfortunately, after carefully administering 4 enemas over the duration of a week, supplying ample amounts of mineral oil and other gentle laxatives and drinking plenty of fluids, Dominic still has not had a bowel movement.
We are fearing the worst; impaction...
Dominic has high functioning autism. At the age of 4, Dominic was diagnosed with autism by the autism strategist from our local school.
Even as a most-loving and independent child with advanced coordination skills for his age, Dominic showed signs of delayed speech and poor communication skills with few words used on his own and frequent echolalia at the age of 2. We first introduced AEA because of his speech delay, however, after just a few months of speech therapy and minor progress, we decided to opt out of the AEA program and speech while our family underwent some major changes--moving to a new city and to a new house!
After moving to our new home, we decided to contact our local AEA once again to get Dominic's speech therapy started back up. It was then that we realized he needed more than what the speech therapist could give him and that is when we decided to integrate him into a pre-kindergarten classroom, mainly for speech modeling from his peers. Because we had expressed concern, an autism screening was done and that is when we were informed that Dominic had high-functioning autism.
Though we were prepared for the outcome, we knew that we had to do everything we could do to help our son thrive. We became heavily involved in biomedical therapies and researching every corner possible on the internet, getting our hands on any kind of reading material we could. You have to weed out the bad from the good, and that can be very difficult when you're a hopeful parent looking for the "magic cure".
Fortunately, we are blessed with a wonderful family in having their understanding and support as we try to "fight through the fog". As some of you may already know through the website www.hyperbaricsupport.com, Dr. Jason Rose, a chiropractor in Cedar Falls, IA, is Dominic's uncle and has dedicated much of his time to finding biomedical interventions to help Dominic and others like him who are affected by autism. Jason is also working towards certification as a DAN! doctor and has put us in contact with other great resources--a prayer answered, no doubt!
With such great success in such a small amount of time, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has proven to be a huge asset with our son. It is something we will continue to do with him whenever given the opportunity. Currently, Dominic also takes fish oil and a mutlivitamin/mineral supplement every day. This has also proven beneficial in his concentration and speech as his diet is extremely limited being the finicky eater that he is, eating only a handful of different foods--mostly unhealthy!
Because of his self-limited diet, this has led to extreme bowel habits, or lack thereof. Dominic was fully potty trained at the age of 2, but after moving to our new home, he regressed to the point where we finally had to give in to letting him poop in diapers versus his underwear. This seemed to work for him up until recently, when we realized he would do anything possible, contorting his body into any position possible, so that he would not poop. We've gone two weeks before without seeing any major bowel movement, but this time, something was different; he wouldn't even allow us to put a diaper on him because he absolutely refused to "go". Dominic recently missed an entire week of school because he refused to get off the couch due to the fact that he had the urge to go everytime he would stand up. Things were spiraling out of control.
After consulting with another parent of an autistic child who had been through a very similar situation, we opted to do enemas on Dominic. Unfortunately, after carefully administering 4 enemas over the duration of a week, supplying ample amounts of mineral oil and other gentle laxatives and drinking plenty of fluids, Dominic still has not had a bowel movement.
We are fearing the worst; impaction...
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